Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, attempting to recover from various political wounds, is backing a ballot initiative in her state that would require notification of a parent or guardian before a minor may obtain an abortion.

This may prove to be a smart political strategy. What's not smart -- or justified -- are attempts to attack Palin for involving herself in a ballot initiative campaign. Governors all over the country --- both Democrats (Ritter of Colorado and Napolitano of Arizona most recently) and Republicans (Schwarzenegger) -- have led such campaigns, even drafting and sponsoring initiatives themselves. But the left in and out of Alaska has tried to accuse Palin of ethical transgressions for supporting measures. Their argument is that a governor, by involving herself in a campaign, is using the resources of her government office for politics. While I have concerns about governors creating plebiscites, Palin's strategy is hardly out of line, or unusual. And her opponents are allowing her to pose as a champion of free speech by attacking her in this way. It'd be wiser to go after Palin for her views on issues and her less-than-distinguished record as governor.

Both the outgoing governor, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary-nominee Janet Napolitano, and her successor, Jan Brewer, have called for major reform of the state's initiative process. So has the Arizona Republic, in this recent editorial.  It's hard to blame them. Arizona saw perhaps unprecedented signature fraud last year. A typical validity rate for signatures collected in an initiative campaign is 70 percent. But multiple measures last year had validity rates of less than 50 percent. That's strong evidence of institutional, across-the-board fraud.

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, a Democrat, says she thinks marriage is man-woman but that the ballot measure, which -- like its counterpart in California -- would add a same-sex marriage ban to the state constitution, is unnecessary. 

Watch out, John McCain. It is now a crime to lie while discussing politics in the state of Arizona. Of course, this new law applies not to politicians, city or state officials, or anyone in a position of authority. The criminalizing of lying is limited to only that most powerful of people: signature gatherers.

This legislation, recently signed into law by Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, is pure madness. Who will decide who is lying and who is not? Probably judges and elected officials who don't like whatever petition the gatherers are circulating. What's next? Do circulators have to travel with lawyers? Perhaps we need legislation requiring circulators to tape all their conversations, like detectives must do when defendatns are confessing?

Lying is part of politics. Fraud by signature gatherers -- faking names, faking signatures -- should be prosecuted criminally and fiercely. And yes, signature gatherers should be honest in how they describe petitions. But any criminal law governing the subject will be, at best, selectively enforced. The right to petition your government is fundamental in any free society. Take it away, and people will seek other, more destructive ways to change things they don't like. In the end, the voters who sign petitions must be responsible for what they sign.

UTAH FIGHT OVER POWER OF REFERENDUM, INITIATIVVE: A new Utah law, which goes into effect next month, would prevent local voters from making land-use decisions at the ballot. But a group in Sevier County, Utah is attempting to challenge the law -- and plans to build a coal-fired electricity plant in their community.

MORE FIXED THAN PUTIN: At an event on budget reform in Garden Grove Monday, gov. Schwarzenegger -- in answer to a question on his redistricting initiative -- talked about the lack of political compeititon. He repeated the statistic that out of 496 seats up for grabs in the last three election cycles in California, only four changed party hands. "Think about that," he said. "That's a fixed system. We always laugh at Putin in Russia when he has his elections. We say, 'This is ridiculous, it's fixed.' Ours is more fixed, I can guarantee you that. It is crazy." More fixed than Putin? Hard to judge. But on turnover, the governor has got a point, as seats in the Duma have changed party hands -- in large part because of Putin's strong-arming -- more often than California legislative and Congressional seats.